1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for performing communication connection with a portable device in a portable terminal. More particularly, the present invention relates to an apparatus and method for performing communication connection with a portable device through a human body communication in a portable terminal.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, researches have been conducted for a human body communication link for exchanging information through the body as a medium using the genetic characteristics of the body instead of a wired or wireless communication medium or link. The human body communication link has an advantage of being capable of providing a user convenience that a user can instinctively select a Mobile Station (MS) intended for communication.
Recently, as society approaches an ubiquitous age enabling anytime, anywhere information exchange, a Personal Area Network (PAN) in which a person collects and processes a variety of data from a portable terminal around is highlighted. A personal area terminal, that is, a portable terminal that a person directly carries or comes in contact around tends to increase in number. Thus, information exchange between the portable terminals is also becoming more active.
To exchange data between the portable terminals requires a communication method for connecting the portable terminals with each other. A traditional connection method is a wired communication method. However, this method needs a communication cable, thus causing inconvenience as a user has to carry a communication cable to utilize this service. However, this communication means also has a disadvantage in that the communication cable may become entangled and limit the movement of the user. Thus, a diversity of wireless communication methods (e.g., Bluetooth, Infrared Data Association (IrDA), ZigBee, UltraWideBand (UWB), etc.) have been developed for connection between personal area devices, (i.e., portable terminals) have been commercialized or are under development.
FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a process of communication connection with a portable device in a conventional portable terminal. FIG. 1 illustrates Bluetooth communication connection among wireless communications, for example. However, it would be recognized that other types of wireless communication systems (e.g., WiFI) may be utilized without altering the scope of the invention.
Referring to FIG. 1, a portable terminal 100 equipped with a Bluetooth (i.e., wireless) module searches neighboring connectable Bluetooth devices 122, 124, and 126 to provide services to the Bluetooth devices 122, 124, and 126. The portable terminal 100 creates a list 102 indicating the searched and detected Bluetooth devices 122, 124, and 126, and selects a Bluetooth device intended for connection in the created list 102.
The portable terminal 100 selects a Bluetooth device for use among the list 102 indicating a neighboring connectable Bluetooth devices 122, 124, and 126 and then, communicates with the selected Bluetooth device, to provide a service corresponding to the selected Bluetooth device.
For example, when a user of the portable terminal 100 intends to connect a Bluetooth headset 126, the portable terminal 100 activates a Bluetooth communication module, searches neighboring Bluetooth devices, and then creates a list 102 of connectable Bluetooth devices. After that, the user selects the Bluetooth headset 126 in the created list 102 of the Bluetooth devices.
A portable terminal supports a plurality of wireless connection methods in order to connect with various portable devices for information exchange. However, there is a problem that, as supported connection methods increase in number, the connection process between the portable terminal and the portable device also increases in complexity.
Hence, when the portable terminal performs communication with a portable device, the portable terminal has to select a communication method and search a portable device supporting the selected communication method. Inversely, even a portable device, at a reception side, performs the same process as the portable terminal, thus being capable of performing communication connection.
As described above, when intending to connect the portable terminal with a portable device, a user has to go through several processes and thus, there is a drawback that user's convenience is deteriorated.